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Rehabilitation Project Force
Download this document as a pdf The RPF: Scientology's gulag The forced labor camps integral to Scientology's para-military, "Sea Organization", are referred to as the "RPF" or "Rehabilitation Project Force". Ex-Sea Org members who experienced the program have compared the RPF to soviet gulags and to the re-education camps once run by the Khmer Rouge. Even today, there are hundreds of prisoners in the Sea Organization's RPF, living and working under conditions that are both squalid and illegal. Ex-Sea Org member and former 'inmate', Gerry Armstrong described Scientology's RPF as: }} Another former inmate, Howard Schomer said: }} The RPF is NOT a myth. On ABC's "Nightline", Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis admitted the existence of the RPF calling it, "... a program that, uh, members of the Church's religious order, uh, do voluntarily and are given the opportunity to do if, uh, they're found to have failed in their duties". Davis' disigenuous answer echoes the "Church of Scientology's" usual progaganda which tries to 'pass off' the RPF as a voluntary penance program, similar to a monastic order. In reality, the RPF is a hard labor prison camp. Policies and history of the RPF The RPF hard labor program was instituted in 1974 by Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The numerous policies Hubbard drafted were designed to create a hostile environment. These policies of intentional mistreatment are enforced by the cult's current leader David Miscavige. These include: Restricted Communications: Forced Confinement: }} Poor Diet: }} Physical Maltreatment: }} Running: }} Dangerous Working Conditions and Exhaustion: }} Hygiene: }} Sleeping Conditions: }} Media Access: }} Study of Hubbard Ideology: }} Forced Confessions and Security Checking: }} Medical and Dental Care: }} Success Stories: }} Children and teens in RPF There is substantial evidence that children and teens are placed on the RPF. Hubbard intended children to be included in the RPF and wrote voluminous policies on the subject. Scientologist believe in multiple reincarnations. Children are considered adult souls (thetans) packaged in a smaller body. For this reason children are given little special consideration. They are made to work in the same environments as adults and usually deprived schooling. The RPF does make allowances for a child or teen's lessor physical capabilities, but the dogmatic thrust of the program is the same for children, as it is for adults. There are many reports of children in the RPF and proof captured on film by by a television news crew: Shortly after that exchange Goodman, a Scientology bus loaded with young people dressed in black pulled up. They jogged into the Scientology complex. A recent defector of from Scientology told me they were from the Church's Rehabilitation Project Force. They were found to be a problem, and need an attitude adjustment (KOTO, 1989). This film segment is over in a matter of seconds, but viewers are able to count at least thirteen teens (two or more who appear to be females), all wearing dark suits (with short sleeves and short pants). Of course, the dark uniforms and the jogging requirement are standard for people assigned to the RPF. While the Scientology organization may insist that adults in the RPF program are there willingly, it is difficult to imagine this justification (or excuse) applying to teens whose presumed ages would suggest that they should be under the care of parents or guardians. | }} Christmas in the RPF David Miscavage sentenced the Commanding Officer of Scientology U.S. Western Division to the RPF for giving the inmates a rare, one day, Christmas 'break'. Mark Fisher relates this unusual example, 1982 was the year to be exact and I had been sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) in LA at the Complex about a month or so earlier. The RPF is the Sea Org prison camp in Scientology for Sea Org members who “mess up on the job” or who “ are disaffected” meaning not in agreement with what management or a senior executive is doing. “Disaffection”. That was my crime. I had been assigned as a jury member on a Committee of Evidence for RTC. The biggest Committee of Evidence of all time in Sea Org history. The justice action against David Mayo (Senior Case Supervisor International), Kerry Gleeson (Executive Director International) and about a dozen other senior executives and technical people in senior management positions for Scientology. These people were being railroaded at the hands of David Miscavige based on false reports and information sent up to LRH by DM. Based on those reports, these Senior Executives were considered enemies of Scientology and they were to receive a Committee of Evidence and then they would be offloaded from the Sea Org and many of them declared Suppressive Persons. However I did not agree with the evidence being presented against some of these executives and disagreed with what was happening to them. I couldn’t keep these disagreements hidden, and they came up in my Scientology processing sessions. Because of these disagreements, I was considered “disaffected” and therefore removed from the jury and from my position and sent off the Int Base to the RPF in LA to be “rehabilitated”. The RPF as many of you know is basically a “re-education camp” for Sea Org members. RPFers are subjected to tough discipline and do manual labor most of the day, while also getting re-educated in Scientology technology and made to come clean on any crimes or transgressions against LRH or Scientology. RPFers cannot speak unless spoken to, have to run everywhere they go, sleep in the worst berthing spaces, eat the left over food after the regular crew have finished eating and must wear black clothing to designate their status. In effect, you are in prison. There are security watches at night so that you don’t try to leave. The RPF program in 1982/1983 usually took about 5 to 6 months to complete and graduate so that the Sea Org member could be a regular crew member again to work in a regular position in Scientology. Over the years however, that time has been extended to YEARS based on arbitraries put into affect by David Miscavige. However, whether you are in for a short time or long time, being imprisoned has a negative affect on someone that can last a lifetime. Christmas 1982, I was in the RPF along with close to 100 others. Due to the actions of one person – the Commanding Officer of the Western US, we were able to enjoy Christmas Day as a regular person again. All RPFers were allowed to spend Christmas Day with their children and families in the LA area. Anyone without a family could go off and enjoy the Christmas holiday together with other single RPFers. I remember it like it was almost yesterday. We all got changed out of our old black t-shirts and pants and got dressed in normal everyday clothes. A group of us went to Hollywood Boulevard and saw the movie “Tootsie” with Dustin Hoffman and then went over to an Italian Restaurant on Vermont Avenue and had dinner together before returning to the Complex. We felt like free men and women again! It gave us hope, a powerful thing. The next day, we were back to our restrictions and RPF rules and, when DM and International Management people found out about the RPFers having time off for Christmas, the Commanding Officer Western US was soon assigned to the RPF to join us... We were free men and women for a few hours again! Hope is a powerful thing! It would take a few years more before I took the final step and left Sea Org for good and thank goodness I got away when I could. The actions of Anonymous help spread hope to those people still trapped in the Sea Org and the RPF. I want to thank you all for all that you do." | }} Inmate descriptions of the RPF The forced labor camps integral to Scientology's paramilitary Sea Organization are a public disgrace. The fact that these gulags are located in major cities in the western world is almost impossible to believe! There is a great deal that could be written about the Scientology's RPF and yet the words of those who have survived the program seem to describe all that is necessary: }} }} Why would someone would allow this to happen to them? Why would anyone 'voluntarily' submit to such treatment? Fear of excommunication! A fate that is unthinkable for Sea Organization members who sign 'billion year contracts' dedicating current and future lifetimes to Scientology. Dr. Stephen Kent from the University of Alberta described 'voluntary' participation in the RPF in this way: }} Another possible reason Sea-Org members submit to this punishment is ideological brain-washing. Scientologists are indoctinated to believe that bad events are 'self-created' psychically. Scientologists are taught they have personal power over "mattter, energy, space, and time". Having that power, they blame themselves for bad outcomes or events which must be "their fault". "Pulled it in" is a catch-phrase in Scientology that describes this. Sea-Org members assigned to the RPF often believe they "pulled in" and deserve their sentence. References Category:Operation press pack Category:Copied from Chanology Wiki